Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Google's wonder wheel

A new feature, one of several, in Google's results page is a Wonder Wheel. I came across the name Hype Igoe, a boxing writer on the pages of the book I'm currently reading, Tunney: boxing's brainiest champ and his upset of the great Jack Dempsey, by Jack Cavanaugh. Googling him led me to an entry on the blog of a Canadian cartoonist, Yesterday's Papers.

Clicking on the Wonder Wheel hyperlink shows a wheel with spokes: hype igoe in the center, with names on spokes: Joe Louis, San Francisco Examiner, Cyber boxing zone, Jack Dempsey, Jim Corbett, Gene Tunney, elevator operator, hypodermic needle.

The last two are, seemingly, erroneous. Nonetheless, in the entry in Yesterday's Papers on Hype Igoe, there is this: “It was Dorgan who helped popularize the label “Hype”, which Igoe had hung on him by a 300 pound Negro elevator operator. The operator took one look at the slender 15 year old copy-boy back in the days when he was working for the San Francisco Examiner and observed: “Mr. Igoe, yo ain’t no bigger than a hypodermic needle.””

Hype himself originated the phrase "to hype," as in standing behind his fighters "hyping" them up for the slugout.

So, there are the connections, but they make little logical sense.

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